Method for implementing a data communication protocol stack

Claim 1

A method of implementing source and destination protocol stacks 14a for a multi-layered communications protocol system, comprising the steps of: receiving message data into a communications protocol stack of a source node 510 in the form of a linked list of data communications buffers 20, each buffer having an envelope field 24 for storing message data and protocol headers and a buffer header 22 field for storing buffer data to be used for segmenting and reassembling said buffers, wherein said envelope field contains message data that is presegmented to a size capable of being transmitted between a source and a destination protocol stack after all layer headers are added to it at the source stack; passing access to said buffers to each next protocol layer of said source node 512, such that each layer gains exclusive access to said buffers; segmenting said message data at any layer of said source node 520 by unlinking all or some of said linked buffers 521 and adding a layer header to each new segment 531; receiving the unlinked buffers into a protocol stack of a destination node 560 as separate data units; and reassembling said buffers at a peer protocol layer of the destination stack 570 by re-linking said buffers 571.

Claim 2

A method of implementing source and destination protocol stacks 14a for a multi-layered communications protocol system, comprising the steps of: receiving message data into a communications protocol stack of a source node 510 in the form of a linked list of data communications buffers 20, each buffer having an envelope field 24 for storing message data and protocol headers and a buffer header 22 field for storing buffer data to be used for segmenting, reassembling, and accessing said buffers, wherein said envelope field contains message data that is presegmented to a size capable of being transmitted between a source and a destination protocol stack after all layer headers are added to it at the source stack; passing access to said buffers to each next layer of said source node 512, such that each layer gains exclusive access to said buffers; at any layer of said source stack, segmenting said message data 520 by unlinking all or some of said linked buffers 521 and adding a layer header to each new segment 531; at the physical layer of said source stack, segmenting said message data 520 by unlinking each of said buffers 521, if any links are still remaining; receiving the unlinked buffers into a protocol stack of a destination node 560 as separate data units; and reassembling said buffers at a peer protocol layers of the destination stack 570 by re-linking said buffers 571.

Claim 3

A method of pre-segmenting, segmenting and reassembling message data to be transported from a source node to a destination node of a communications network that follows a multi-layered communications protocol, comprising the steps of: formatting one or more data communications buffers 511, each buffer having an envelope field 24 for storing message data and protocol headers and a buffer header field 22 for storing buffer data to be used for segmenting and reassembling message data in said buffers; storing message data in said envelope field 24, wherein said message data is pre-segmented 62 to a size such that said envelope contains only so much message data as can be transmitted between a source node and a destination node after all layers of said source stack have added their layer headers to said message data; receiving a linked list of said buffers 63, representing related message data, into a protocol stack of a source node; at any protocol layer of the source stack, segmenting said message data 520 by unlinking said buffers 521; passing access to said buffers to each next layer of said source node 512, such that each layer gains exclusive access to said buffers; at the physical layer of said source stack, unlinking each of said buffers 520, if not already unlinked, such that each of said buffers may be transmitted as a separate data unit; and at the destination node, reassembling said message data 570 by re-linking said buffers 571.

Claim 4

A method of implementing source and destination protocol stacks for a multi-layered communications protocol system, comprising the steps of: receiving message data into a communications protocol stack of a source node 510 in the form of a linked list of data communications buffers 20, each buffer having an envelope field 24 for storing message data and protocol headers and a buffer header 22 field for storing buffer data to be used for segmenting, reassembling, and accessing said buffers, wherein said envelope field contains message data that is presegmented to a size capable of being transmitted between a source and a destination protocol stack after all layer headers are added to it at the source stack; passing access to said buffers to each next layer of said source node 512, such that each layer gains exclusive access to said buffers; segmenting said message data at any layer or combination of layers 520 by unlinking the linked buffers 521; during execution of said tasks at a checkpointing layer of said source node, storing payload data in said buffer header field 540 so that said checkpointing layer may regain the same buffer after passing access to it; receiving the unlinked buffers into a protocol stack of a destination node 560 as separate data units; and reassembling said message data at a protocol layer of the destination stack 570 by re-linking said buffers 571.

Claim 5

A method of using data communications buffers to implement protocol stack of a source node of a communications network following a multi-layered communications protocol, such that no physical copying is required, comprising the steps of: before entering the protocol stack, formatting message data into buffers 511, each buffer 20 having an envelope field 24 and a buffer header field 22, such that said envelope field contains at least a segment of said user data, wherein said segment is sufficiently small such that it may be transmitted between a source node and a destination node as a complete data unit after all protocol layers have added header data to said segment; receiving buffers containing related message data into the protocol stack as a linked list 62; using the buffers to pass data from layer to layer, by granting a layer exclusive access to the buffers 63; and during processing of the protocol stack, using a pointer subfield of said buffer header field to unlink buffers containing segmented user data 63.

Claim 6

A method of using data communications buffers to implement protocol stack of a source node of a communications network following a multi-layered communications protocol, such that no physical copying is required, comprising the steps of: before entering the protocol stack, formatting message data into buffers 511, each buffer 20 having an envelope field 24 and a buffer header field 22, such that said envelope field contains at least a segment of said user data, wherein said segment is sufficiently small such that it may be transmitted between a source node and a destination node as a complete data unit after all protocol layers have added header data to said segment; using the buffers to pass data from layer to layer, by granting a layer exclusive access to the buffers 62; and during processing of the protocol stack, using a payload offset subfield of said buffer header to store the state of said buffer at any one layer 64, such that said layer may regain access to the same buffer.